Dallas Cowboys’ Dak Prescott is 4th-highest earning athlete at $107M over last year

And just like that, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has gone from being underpaid and one of the best bargains in all of sports through the first four years of his career to being one of the highest earning athletes in the world.

According to Forbes, Prescott is one of four athletes who took home more than $100 million during the past 12 months in pretax gross earnings.

MMA star Conor McGregor led the way, collecting a total of $180 million over the last 12 months.

Soccer stars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo were next with $130 million and $120 million in earnings, respectively.

Prescott’s fourth-place showing of $107.5 million over the last year breaks the record for NFL players.

According to Forbes, only five other athletes — Roger Federer, Floyd Mayweather, Neymar Jr., Manny Pacquiao and Tiger Woods — have made more than $100 million in a single year.

Prescott can credit his presence to the four-year, $160 million contract he signed in March that included an NFL-record $66 million signing bonus, as well as the $31.4 million base salary he made in 2020. A total of $10 million of Prescott’s earnings came from marketing and endorsements.

It’s a far cry from the first four years of his career when he started every game, led the Cowboys to two NFC East titles and made two trips to the Pro Bowl, but took home $2 million from the Cowboys in 2019, $630,000 in 2018, $540,000 in 2017 and $450,000 during his rookie season in 2016.

NBA superstar LeBron James was fifth on the Forbes list behind Prescott. The Los Angeles Lakers’ all-star took home $96.5 million over the last 12 months, a record for NBA players.